The BIG Mistake This Melbourne Cup Winner Made

One woman has suffered the ultimate fate for bragging about her Melbourne Cup winnings last year, so let it be a reminder for anyone taking a punt on today's race!

It was hard enough to pick the winner in the Melbourne Cup, and for one woman, who managed to score herself $825 in winnings, what happened next was unthinkable.

"Winner winner chicken dinner", read the caption on the photograph of an elated Chantelle holding her winning ticket.

She backed the 100-to-1 shot Prince of Penzance in the 2015 Melbourne Cup and reaped the rewards.

Then, when she went to cash her ticket, she realised that she had the whole lot STOLEN!

It wasn’t stolen from her purse, oh no.

It was taken after she posted a selfie with her winning ticket, including the barcode.

She realised this just 15 MINUTES after taking and uploading the selfie and taking her ticket to the TAB, only to be told that the prize had already been claimed.

"Someone had a pretty good game at filtering my picture and cutting out my barcode and putting it into an automated machine," Chantelle said.

The worst part was the realisation that the thief must be one of her Facebook friends.

"To the low life who is obviously my friend on Facebook and used my photo to claim our winnings. You're a massive dick. You ruined my day," she later posted to Facebook. "I might need a bit of a Facebook cull now," she said.

The good news? Police were able to track down the machine that was used to withdraw the money and were confident that they would be able to identify the person or people involved.